Working with Your Spouse

Amanda and I have worked together in different roles and capacities for over 20 years. Currently, we work about 10 feet apart from each other in our home.

Some of our friends cringe at the thought of working that closely with their spouse for so many hours each day, and others say “I could never work from home” because of all the distractions.

For Amanda and me, it’s never been that difficult. But in trying to advise others who struggle with this concept, I’ve had to reverse engineer what we do to make it work so well for us.

First off, Amanda and I are both doers. This helps a lot because we are both motivated to be productive with our day. We love to get shit done.

We also have worked together in many environments outside of a typical office. We are accustomed to working wherever we are. Whether it’s at the kitchen counter or on some remote island in the Pacific, we have no problem working to get important things done.

We also naturally leverage each other’s strengths. I’m stronger at tech stuff, while she is stronger at editing/proofing things. I’m great at brainstorming, and Amanda is great at planning.

Sometimes at the end of the day, we plan for the next day, sometimes we purposely don’t talk about work stuff because one of us needs a mental break from it. The point is, we just figure it out.

The best part is that I am most content when I have Amanda nearby. We don’t have to be talking to each other. In fact, I often wear headphones for most of my day.

That’s not to say I did not like my time spent at my office. I liked my team and the environment we created there. It’s just that I’ve rediscovered that I like working from home better.

I like how I can get up and get straight to work. There is no lost time. I love having Amanda within earshot if I reach a point where I want to leverage her strengths on something. We could do this apart, but it’s just nice to have her nearby, and it’s very efficient.

We make a pretty damn good team, but to be fair, we’ve had a lot of practice at it. Twenty years of working some sort of side hustle or full-time hustle together has honed our abilities.

Earlier this year, we decided to once again go full time working together on the projects and businesses that we plan on continuing for the next 20+ years.

I don’t know where these ventures will take us, but I’m not worried about it, because when I’m working with Amanda, I feel like I’m chasing happiness, and winning every day.